Australians are pretty rich but there’s a catch

If an outsider ever wanted to understand Australia’s deeply ingrained obsession with owning a house, they need look no further than the latest UBS Global Wealth Report. Released last week, it is perhaps the most succinct snapshot of our nation’s immediate financial reality, also highlighting three of the country’s biggest economic issues.

The annual UBS report analyses key financial data from 56 countries, determining net worth by combining financial assets with real assets (savings, stocks and property), and deducting debt.

Australia retained its place as the world’s second-richest country for median wealth, and fifth for average wealth. Further, 1.9 million Australians maintained their status as millionaires in US dollar terms (at least $1.55 million to their name).

All this looks and sounds pretty good, right? This year’s median wealth figure of $411,000 is an increase of 6 per cent over last year’s $387,176. The only country with a healthier figure is Luxembourg, with $607,000. By this metric, we are significantly better off than New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and the United States, among others.

Meanwhile, this year’s average wealth figure marks an even greater leap, increasing by 17.8 per cent in just 12 months from last year’s $807,862 to $952,000. Switzerland, the US, Hong Kong and Luxembourg took out the top spots, but we are still ahead of the UK, France, Canada and New Zealand.

Intriguingly, the wealth growth trend in median and average wealth was not evident in the number of Australian millionaires. In fact, that number decreased slightly, from 1.93 million last year.

The UBS report simply highlights what many of us already know to be true, which is that if you want to get ahead in Australia, you need to own property.

In isolation, that might not seem much of a dip. The UBS report estimates the number of Australians with a personal wealth of $1.55 million or more will grow by more than 20 per cent over the next three years, so there could be roughly 400,000 more millionaires by 2028.

Combine the growth in median and average wealth with the dip in the number of millionaires, and the UBS report paints an eerily similar picture to the concerns that were raised when this year’s Australian Financial Review Rich List was published.

This brings us to the first of the three issues. This is that fewer people are getting ahead, while the rich are getting much, much richer.

It was through the 2025 Rich List that economist Reuben Finighan compared data between the 1984 and 2024 Rich Lists. He found the wealth of Australia’s 200 richest people had grown 7.7 times faster than per capita wealth in the past four decades. At the same time, investor-philanthropist Alan Schwartz found that the wealth of those same 200 rich listers grew 26 times faster than per capita income.

Which is how we arrive at the second risk: the double-edged sword that is housing and the role it plays in our economy.

A primary reason for the growth in average and median wealth found by UBS report is growth in Australia’s property market, where the median house price is now $844,000 and the average exceeds $1 million. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in the March 2025 quarter, the total value of residential properties owned by households was $10.9 trillion.

That’s certainly good news for home owners, but it paints a dire picture for those who haven’t yet got a foot on the property ladder. It’s no secret that housing affordability is one of the biggest financial challenges facing millions of Australians and that the age of people buying their first home buyers is rising.

There is a domino effect of delayed entry into homeownership – as much as two decades’ worth of income is going towards rent, not asset accumulation. In that sense, the UBS report simply highlights what many of us already know to be true, which is that if you want to get ahead in Australia, you need to own property.

Even the good news of rising home values is not entirely good, which conveniently brings me to the third risk.

Currently, only the Swiss and Swedes carry more debt than Australians, and we also have a distinct lack of diversity when it comes to our wealth. As the UBS report noted, “Australia stands out for its real estate that makes up almost 53 per cent of the country’s personal wealth, ahead of the United Kingdom and far ahead of other markets.” According to Finder’s 2024 Wealth Building report, that figure climbed to 74 per cent of all of Australia’s household net worth when superannuation was added into the mix.

The UBS report also helpfully pointed out that, “The proportion of wealth held in cash and deposits is the lowest in Australia at just above 10 per cent, only half as much as in Switzerland, Singapore and the UK.”

The significance of Australians carrying some of the world’s highest debt is that if anything adverse happens to our housing market or to the broader global economy, in which much of our super is invested, three in four Australians would be at serious risk of losing a lot of money.

As the government notes via MoneySmart, financial diversification over asset classes, such as property, shares, savings, superannuation and managed funds, greatly lowers financial risk if one asset class drops in value.

For some reason, Australians aren’t very good at this. We tend to stick to what we know – property and superannuation – and sit back to watch the wealth accumulate.

There are very good reasons for us having done this for so long. Yet there is an elephant in the global room of diversified wealth – and while we keep doing the same, the elephant of our associated risk just gets bigger.

Victoria Devine is an award-winning retired financial adviser, bestselling author and host of Australia’s No.1 finance podcast, She’s on the Money. She is also founder and director of Zella Money.

• Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.

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